General Veers and Snowtroopers Announced!

Fantasy Flight Games has announced 2 more expansions for the Empire: General Veers and Snowtroopers! While expansion announcements are always significant, this is of particular interest because it includes the first commander expansion.

A look at General Veers gives us a clearer picture of what to expect from future commander expansions in terms of items included and price, as well as the types of stats and abilities we can expect from commanders that aren't force users. It also goes a long way to introducing more variety into the game; once General Veers is released we will no longer be limited to always seeing Vader in every game. So let's take a look at the precedents that Veers sets for commander expansions.



Listed at $12.95, this is the single least expensive Legion product to date. There is 1 miniature, 3 command cards, 3 upgrade cards, and a unit card as well as all the relevant tokens to add General Veers to your army. I would expect a similar amount of content from any future commander expansions as well as the same price.

While there is only 1 figure, it should be of fairly high quality, and since it is a unique character, I expect most people will only purchase 1 unless they really want to try multiple paint schemes. Depending on how exclusive it is, I imagine the most competitive tournament players might consider buying more for the Equipment upgrade card alone.

In terms of stats and abilities, General Veers looks to be both the least expensive commander points-wise as well as the squishiest. At less than half the points cost of Darth Vader, there should be a lot of different lists that he could fit into. Like both Luke and Vader, he has 4 keywords and 3 upgrade slots. I would expect future commanders to have similar numbers in this regard. Nevertheless, the types of upgrades and keywords distinguish him from his force-sensitive peers.

While they can bring Force upgrades, Veers has slots for Command upgrades. While Vader and Luke have keywords like Deflect that highlight their Jedi training, Veers has more generic keywords. It is also noteworthy that 3 of his keywords are new: Inspire, Sharpshooter, and Spotter. While I expect to see Inspire mostly on other commanders, Sharpshooter and Spotter both seem like they could be appropriate on special forces and support units, or even an Equipment upgrade card.

The Snowtroopers unit expansion is also interesting because it will provide another option for corps units. Since at least 3 corps units are required for a standard army, this is another very important way to add variety. They manage to be very similar to Stormtroopers- their stats are almost identical- while adding a bit of diversity both visually and mechanically.

Aside from being slower and having a different keyword, a lot of that diversity will come from the new heavy weapons that Snowtroopers can bring. While the Stormtroopers appear more generally useful, the Snowtroopers look to have a strong anti-infantry option as well as one focused on disabling rather than destroying vehicles.

Look for Unit Guides with a more in-depth discussion of statistics and the like sometime in the future. All in all, it's very exciting news, and I am looking forward to seeing these units in battle!